Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ sells luxury Moscow apartment for £7.6million to ‘escape oppression’ – World News

Ksenia Sobchak, 40, a prominent TV presenter and Russia’s leading opposition politician, has long-standing family ties to President Vladimir Putin – the bully even attended her christening when she was a baby

Vladimir Putin’s “goddaughter” is said to have received foreign citizenship since invading Ukraine.

Ksenia Sobchak, 40, a prominent TV presenter and the country’s leading opposition politician who opposed Putin in the 2018 presidential election, has “secured Israeli citizenship”.

She is also said to have sold an elite apartment in Moscow for more than $10 million (£7.6 million).

Sobchak has known Putin since she was a child and was present at her christening.

Her late father, Anatoly Sobchak, was Putin’s law professor and mentor, who got the warmonger his first foothold in politics as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.

While she has spoken out strongly against his policies in recent years, Putin has close and long-standing ties with her family.

Putin even smuggled her father, Anatoly Sobchak, out of Russia to seek medical treatment in the West when his patron was wanted for alleged corruption.

Putin was later pictured at the funeral of Anatoly Sobchak along with Ksenia and her mother Lyudmila Narusova, a Russian senator in 2000.

Reports in Israel, echoed in Russia today, say that Ksenia Sobchak has obtained citizenship for herself and her young son.

Her maternal family has Jewish connections.

In early March, she left Russia “on vacation,” and it was later confirmed that she had gone to Israel.

Soon after, she said: “I am Russian, I am a citizen of Russia.

“I’m not emigrating anywhere, I have no other citizenships.”

Posting today that she is currently in Russia, she has criticized – but not denied – reports of Israeli citizenship coming from Putin’s “propaganda” media.

She posted a video showing herself floating next to the Moskva River with lumps of ice in the water, mocking the claim that she is near the Jordan River.

She did not comment on the reported sale of the apartment.

Still, a source said she feared repression in Putin’s Russia and, like many liberal-minded Russians, had prepared an escape route.

When she opposed Putin, she first went to him to discuss her candidacy.

She came fourth in a poll widely believed to have been heavily rigged in Putin’s favour.

After the war began, Ksenia expressed concern for her mother, who was the first major Russian figure to stand up and condemn the war.

She accused Putin’s state television stations of “shameless lies” about their reporting.

And she revealed that 96 out of 100 conscripts were killed in an attack.

She accused him of failing to arrange for the return of the bodies of killed soldiers, which she says are being gnawed by stray dogs.

Narusova – who is seen as a friend of the Putin family – has reacted furiously to the recent Moscow media crackdown that has blocked key independent news outlets.

Ksenia, who formerly posed for Playboy, posted from Israel: “Mom! I’m proud of you and I’m very worried about you. Very.”

Obtaining a second Israeli citizenship would prevent Ksenia from running in a future Russian presidential election.